RCN Series
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The RCN Series (also known as the Lt. Leary series) is a sequence of stand-alone science fiction novels by David Drake. They center around Daniel Leary, an officer in the Republic of Cinnibar Navy (RCN), and Adele Mundy, a librarian and spy. Drake has written about the literary ancestry of his series:[1]
- I've read Patrick O'Brian's novels and I love them. Some reviews have referred to my Leary/Mundy series as an SF version of Hornblower. That's not correct; I did an SF version of the Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's superb knockoff of Forester's Hornblower.
In contrast to the hardcore military SF bent of Drake's Hammer's Slammers series, these novels are more character driven and feature political intrigue as well as battles.
[edit] General Plot
The books center around the lives of the above mentioned Adele Mundy, originally a librarian, and Daniel Leary, a rising officer in the RCN. They are thrown together on a provincial planet, which Daniel arrives at as part of a diplomatic party, while Adele is serving as resident librarian for the planet's current rulers.
An early point of conflict between the two main characters centered around the fact both came from highly political families within the government of Cinnibar. However, the O'Learys, led by Daniel's father, had uncovered a conspiracy invovling the Mundys, leading to the latter's essential extermination, except for Adele, who at the time was studying off-planet.
[edit] Technology of the RCN Universe
Interstellar travel is accomplished through the use of advanced sails on the hull of starships, which take advatage of a theoretical pressure to move the crafts outside of the sidereal universe, allowing faster-than-light travel. Sub-lightspeed travel is driven by a matter-antimatter anihilating "High Drive".
Hand weapons are generally based off of electromagnetic accelleration of projectiles, while space weaponry consists of kinetic energy missiles accellerated to a high fraction of c (thereby rendering any warhead superfluous) and point defense plasma systems.
[edit] Bibliography
As of 2006, the series consists of five novels, shown here with the year and ISBN of first publication.
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With the Lightnings 1998 ISBN 0-671-87881-6 Lt. Leary Commanding 2000 ISBN 0-671-57875-8 The Far Side of the Stars 2003 ISBN 0-7434-7158-X The Way to Glory 2005 ISBN 0-7434-9882-8 Some Golden Harbor 2006 ISBN 1-4165-2080-5
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